This game, Aquarius, starts off with a girl called Liese who wakes up on a snowy field. She remembers nothing but her name, and walks to a nearby forest where she meets up with Faz, a pirate. Faz takes Liese to his pirate buddies, who are looking for something, something very important.
Dr. Shizuma made this game for the Human-day contest. It had a small amount of maptiles, but this is allowable due to the short limit put on creating the game.

Graphics

The graphics are rather good. There is no rushing, and the Forest trees are superbly detailed. The walkabout graphics have oddly huge heads, but this is nearly unnoticeable once the player gets used to it. The backgrounds are well done, but are just enlarged maptiles. The in-battle sprites, though, are amazing. Every single aspect and detail is there, right down to Garrand's hair and Faz's buckle on his vest.

Storyline

The storyline is somewhat spotty, yet gets the message across. Liese wakes up in the middle of nowhere with amnesia, meets a pirate who takes her back to his ship, and then the player learns about the pirates motive. An ancient weapon that lies in the heart of a sunken continent called Aquarius. The pirates want it. So on and so forth.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Aquarius is rather well done in terms of RPGs. The battles are a tad easy, and the spells were innovative and attractive. The maptiles were nicely done as well.

Battle

The battle system is a normal RPG battle system, and lacks any new innovations as far as battles go. This game instead is a core RPG, storyline, player choice and so on. The battles could have been harder, as they are just too easy for many button-bashers and strategists.

Map Design

The maps were a little fuzzy, and it was hard to find your way around. A good thing in some cases, but when a player spends about an hour trying to find their way out of a cave, enjoyment is going to suffer. Badly.

Balance

The game, while being easy, didn't get boring in the slightest. Aquarius is a more a frustration game, and while being fun to play, offers little replay value, and makes the player think elsewhere, which is a bad thing.

Music

Music in this game, while ripped, is well placed and doesn't distract the player. There might have been a few original tunes here and there, but not many will notice.

Enjoyment

Aquarius, while being a mildly fun game to play, loses it's edge when it comes down to the wire. The game is a little bit short, and while the contest rules state that only one day can be used to make the game, (it may have been extended afterwards) is so frustrating when the player loses themselves in a large cave of forest and whatnot.

Final Blows

Aquarius does give a nice feeling when finished. While not being an extremely long game, it still is fun and easy to play.

Final Scores

Graphics: 9.5/10.0

The graphics were very polished and had a lot of work and effort put into them. The battle sprites are brilliantly detailed and pleasing to the eye. Easily the best thing in the game.

Storyline: 5/10.0

The story, while being short and confusing at times, pulls through and does need to be extended further. A fine effort.

Gameplay: 5/10.0

Gameplay in the game is sort of limited, but is bearable. Aquarius is frustrating at times, but still plays like it should.

Music: 3/10.0

The music in this game suits the environment well (especially the cave music) but is ripped.

Enjoyment: 6/10.0

An enjoyable game in most respects, but the game needed that extra difficulty.

Overall Grade:
B

Final Thoughts

Aquarius is a game that I would like to see finished. It has a great story behind it, and while the battles were a bit easy and the maps were easy to get lost in, this is overcome by many other great aspects of the game.